New Delhi: About 10 to 12 per cent of the 25.15 crore electorate cast their votes in the first three hours of the final phase of Lok Sabha elections to 182 seats spread over 16 States and Union Territories amidst stray incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and West Bengal, which left one person dead and three injured.

President A P J Abdul Kalam was the first to cast his vote at a polling booth in Presidential estate, falling under New Delhi constituency.

Elections 2004-Where is India heading...
Political Parties in India

Congress president Sonia Gandhi exercised her franchise at the Nirman Bhawan polling booth in the same constituency from where Union Minister Jagmohan is pitted against her party's Ajay Maken.

The final round of elections decides electoral fate of 2,132 candidates prominent among them being Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) veteran Somnath Chatterjee (Bolpur), Deputy Speaker in Lok Sabha P M Sayeed (Lakshadweep), Union Ministers Jagmohan (New Delhi), BC Khanduri (Garhwal), Mamata Banerjee (Kolkata-South), S S Dhindsa (Sangrur), Satyanarayan Jatiya (Ujjain), Sahib Singh Verma (Outer Delhi), I D Swami (Karnal) and Vijay Goel (Delhi-Sadar).

An Akali Dal (Badal) leader Jagpal Singh Sohali, who recently switched over from Akali Dal (Mann) group, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Ludhiana in Punjab while on way to cast his vote.

In a bid to disrupt polling, terrorists fired and lobbed grenades from hill tops in Baderwah in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district falling under Udhampur constituency. No casualty was reported in the attacks.